All This Is True Because It Rhymes
by The What-If Writer
Summary: "And then he'd realised. It was Lord – President – Business's voice, coming out of the Man Upstairs. Or was it the Man Upstairs' voice coming out of President Business?" One night, after all is said and done, Emmet and the former Lord Business have a chat. Cue awkwardness, uncertainty, and that weird feeling you get when you talk outside under the stars without a campfire.
_Because no one else addressed it._

* * *

He never told anyone. Not Benny, Not Uni Kitty, Not Batman – though he had an odd feeling he'd understand more than anyone. He hadn't even told Lucy, or the ghost of a certain blind self-fulfilling prophecy telling guy. Emmet was wandering around and looking at things, which, you know, he liked to do when he wasn't able to sleep. Bricksburg, as it had always been, but adorned with creations here and there, was docile and quiet as night had fallen. The city still stood, people needed apartments as much as they needed turbo dragons to fly to work.

Emmet still had his apartment, and even a double-decker couch. Which he'd left Benny on. He'd been watching those cool space films all night and hadn't noticed he was gone. Emmet had already seen them.

He stopped on the edge of Bricksberg. No, really, where the walls were just being torn down. And, where he knew, in another place, another realm, the edge of a table-top would be...

He looked up at the night sky, settling himself on some rubble like it was a novelty park bench. Little dots, far away. Somewhere, the Man Upstairs had switched off the light and taken the smaller creature to bed.

It should've freaked him out. Well, maybe it did. But at the same time...

It was good to know they were in good hands.

"Whoa..."

A half-startled, but overly familiar voice, broke the silence. Emmet jumped a little and turned.

President Business – if he could still call him that – stood a few yards away, still in his suit, looking fairly out of place. "Is this, uh, your midnight walk street? Huh, though it was mine for a second there."

"No, I don't usually come this way." Emmet replied, beaming honestly. President Business shrugged, his attention already elsewhere. He turned on a squarish heel,

"Right-o, I'm just gonna go on this way..."

Emmet couldn't stop himself, "Hey, President Business –" He called, waiting for the man to stop and he did, turning just a little to glance back at him, "Can I, uh, ask you a question?"

"...Sure, don't see...why not. You're asking me when you coulda just asked to begin with."

"Right, right...uh..." Emmet lifted a hand to his chin. He saw one end of the other's brow lift.

"President Business, you don't have any kids, do you?"

Business was taken back up to eleven, "Whoa, what? No, I don't." He seemed befuddled by the idea. Whatever he'd been expecting, it had been a far stretch from _that._ Emmet grimaced, feeling more than a little silly,

"Right, right."

"Why would you ask something like that? What you think I'm a boring dad type?"

"No! No – well." Emmet glanced to the side,

"That 'cause I'm bossy and I like things to be a 'lil tidy, that means I'm everyone's dad?"

"Naaaah...well..."

"You think I'm old or something? Vitruvius - Vitruvius is _old_!"

Emmet threw up his hands, though laughter made it into his apologetic tone, "Okay, okay, didn't mean it like that! Hey, Batman called me 'Dad' for making him follow the instructions and reminding him of the plan, so I 'know the feel'." At that last line he waved his hands, rotating the claws back and forth.

"Oh yeah, you actually...did that." Business looked away, eyeing the far-off skyline. "Weird, how...you'd be the guy that did all that when you followed my rules better than anyone."

"Up until I didn't. Yah." Emmet was smiling, happy and oblivious, while Business eyed him with an odd kind of scrutiny. Emmet's smile faded.

"So...why _did_ you ask?"

Emmet stared back at him. Yo know that feeling when you're laughing, having a good time, and then you... _feel_ the smile just...melt away and you know you shouldn't keep it there any longer? And you just drop it?

Yeah.

It was his turn to look away, his voice just a mutter.

"Its – it's nothing important."

Business raised his arms, "Oh come on, I'm not stupid, what is it, c'mon?"

Emmet turned his head even further, this time trying at another smile. He gave it a good shot, but it didn't last, "Nah – you wouldn't believe me if I told you."

He turned around, sitting the other away on the rubble. Business was quiet for a moment.

"...Okay...weird..." He cleared his throat, rocking back and forth on the ends of his feet. "So okay, I get to ask an awkward question, since you got one, I get one, fair's fair."

Emmet turned his head, "A question? For me, really?" He was smiling widely again. Business snorted, a little,

"You'll kill someone with that look, Brickoiski. All right, all right...when you...tossed yourself into a floating abyss...what did you see?"

Wow. Mr Business was smart. Darn. Or was it just a coincidence?

He chewed on his lip, "Uuuh..."

Business's mono-brow was arching again, and he waited. Emmet tried to think. He hadn't told anyone. His friends would be upset, Lucy would be upset...but they hadn't asked, and, well, he and Business, the Man Upstairs –

He closed his eyes.

"Hey...uh...you're zoning out on me. Was it super scary or something?"

That _voice_.

"No, it was...I...I haven't told anyone because..." He opened his eyes.

He hadn't realised it until after the battle, after every last trace of kragle was gone and he'd been in bed, getting some much earned sleep, that he remembered that niggling sense of familiarity when the Man Upstairs spoke. And then he'd realised. Lord – President – Business's voice, coming out of him. Or was it the Man Upstairs's voice coming out of President Business?

And he was the one using the kragle.

And the smaller creature –

 _-Finn –_

Was trying to get him to stop, heck, just like he was.

 _\- It's your turn to be the hero._

 _\- All of this, belongs to our father -_

"...Okay, you've zoned out big time, buddy." He heard that very voice in question mutter. Emmet blinked,

"Whoa – uh, how long was I out?"

"Long." Business was sitting down a few steps away, on some rubble, too. His rubble, different rubble, nobody else's. "Heck, I was about to order pizza, maybe watch Lawrence of Arabia."

"Heh, heh-heh..." Emmet's chuckled faded after a moment. He sighed, closing his eyes again.

"Hey, President Business?"

"Don't know if I'm president anymore, but sure, shoot."

"Where'd you get all the, uh relics?"

"Oh, those? Found 'em, stashed around during the early days of building." Busness leant back, cheerily recounting the memories, "First thing I found was the sword of _exact zero_..."

 _Now where is my exact-o knife?_

 _Hey Dad, I think I saw the exact-o over there in Middle Zealand..._

"The first time I saw its awesomely sharp cutting powers was when it dropped out from this break in the foundation – and chopped a dragon's head off."

Emmet leaned back, giving a horrified gasp.

"Yup, pretty cool." Business continued, "And then there was the band-i-eed..."

And it went on like that, Business telling stories, Emmet listening, as easily impressed as a grade schooler. It didn't come into his head to mention where these things had come from, what they were. Or it did. Emmet just pretended it didn't.

"So I spill the bottle because before, the robot's weren't that good at carrying stuff..." Business was gesturing to the story with his hands, slowly, "And then the liquid goes over and just...woosh. Wipes it all clean."

Emmet gulped. "That sounds like it burns."

"Can the floor feel burning?" Business inquired, genuinely confused. Emmet shook his head,

" _Nope."_

There was a pause. Emmet was looking up at the sky again, humming internally to himself, 'Everything is Awesome'. Business blinked at him.

"Huh. You still, uh, like that song?"

"Yeaaah, though I don't tell Lucy about it." Emmet said. Again, his smile faltered. "Some things, I think...maybe, they should stay...quiet."

"Kinda beats the point of your little speech," Business returned, leaning back. There was an odd reproachfulness to his voice, now, as he, too, eyed the stars. "Let your creativity fly and all that."

"It's more of...another kind of thing. Everything's awesome right now, and I don't want to..."

"Rain on everybody's parade? Welcome to my world, Kid."

Emmet looked to him, with a blink. "You...said that no one ever told you – you were special."

"Yeah." Business glanced sideways at him, "From what I heard, same goes for you. That was the whole point of all the ' _oh no he can't be the special.'_ _Aaaah_!"

"...That wasn't fair on you." Emmet said.

Business stared at him.

"...Huh?"

"I didn't build anything, really, not without help. You – you ran the world. Sure, you did it evilly, and uh, scarily..." He shook his hands a little, and Business frowned, avoiding his eye, "But you still built it all, and without it, there would be nothing to...rebuild. That's pretty cool."

Business was quiet for a moment.

"Yeah. I guess it is." A half-smile made it onto his face, at least, to which Emmet beamed.

Then, after a little bit of an awkward pause, Business stood up, "Well, love to stay and...chat all night, but I gotta hit the hay. You keep...staring at the sky, that's some good sky work there."

Emmet laughed, "I will. Night, President Business!" He waved, cheerily, as he departed.

"Night, Emmet..."

When he was a good few meters away, walking up some stairs, Business took the time to glance back, uncertainly. Emmet was still there, but turned away; staring up at the sky just like he said he would, smiling contentedly, but almost...sadly.

Business paused, half-bent, mid-step, and thought hard.

He cleared his throat,

"Hey, Brickoiski!"

Emmet's head turned. His face was a blur from this distance, "Yeah?"

"Shouldn't the hero, I dunno, be asleep by now?"

"I'm good!"

"You should go home." He called, smirking a little for the heck of it, " _Boring Old Dad-Type Guy_ says so!"

Emmet burst out laughing, and fell off the rubble bench, "Okay, okay. See ya later, President Business! Tomorrow Batman's having a barbecue!"

And he skipped off, humming 'everything is awesome' – immensely happy for some weird reason. Quirking a brow, Business shook his head and watched him go.

It still bothered him, on his way back to the now empty tower. But not that much. Tomorrow he'd forget all about this conversation. Maybe. It felt a weird, uncertain feeling in his head, like he was...forgetting something, or missing something.

But it wasn't bad, or upsetting, and he didn't lose any sleep over it. It was just an uncertain aspect of the universe, or something like that. Maybe he'd only used that term because Vitruvius's ghost kept mumbling it in the hallways.


End file.
